Monthly Archives: December 2011

Part of the requirements of the Glen Gould School audition is that I play some orchestral rep for tuba. If I recall, at the last auditions I played Hungarian March (Berlioz), Die Meistersinger (Wagner), Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner) and the Dragon solo from Das Reingold (oh, look, Wagner again – but this piece is a specific requirement for GGS tuba hopefuls). At the time, there were 10 of us auditioning and I didn’t make it.

I did my usual trip to Toronto yesterday. Just for a day at the office. I was listening to CBC Radio 1 on both legs of the trip. The show “The Current” was featuring a call-in about the “10%” – Living Poor in Canada. Most of the callers told stories of how they were doing perfectly fine one day, then circumstances started to happen (illness; partner loses their job; more kids; etc) and they found themselves living from paycheck to paycheck, trying to make ends meet and providing for their kids. I could help but draw parallels to the choices I’m about to make…

Orchestra Toronto did its second annual kids concert this past weekend and it was quite the experience (beyond being sold-out again!). Not since, as a kid, playing alongside Nick Atkinson in a combo concert of the NACO and the OYO have I played in orchestra with multiple tubas on stage. It was pure pleasure teaming up with Courtney Lambert. My other half and friends were in the audience and said the performance of the March to the Scaffold was great. Immediately after it, I excitedly said it was fantastic and Courtney replied that it indeed was “Fantastique”. lol

On December 1st, I mailed in my application to the Glenn Gould School. And in a week or two, I’ll get the application process started for UofT (it’s a freakin’ complicated process). Beyond needing to get a CV ready, repertoire list, reference letters, transcripts, etc, I need to put a huge emphasis on my audition material for the next two months. After all, there’s only ever one tuba allowed in the GGS at a time.